


Spending the Nights with You, At Last

by YukiYashaH



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: F/M, Nightmares, PTSD, a BIT of a hint of spicy but its basically nothing really, and byleth's gonna be there every step of the way to help him, he's recovering he's not gonna get better overnight, im weak
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-01
Updated: 2019-09-01
Packaged: 2020-10-04 22:18:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,546
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20478365
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/YukiYashaH/pseuds/YukiYashaH
Summary: It was not as though Dimitri’s worries and fears had disappeared with the end of the war or with his marriage. No. He was a happier man than he was a decade ago, yes, but he was a scarred one all the same… But now, he had Byleth by his side, to wake up during the night with him and lull him back to sleep.





	Spending the Nights with You, At Last

The smell of burning flesh. The icy grip of fear, helplessness and guilt amidst the chaos all around him. He cannot see any faces, nor can he remember them – their screams blending into the fire, mixing with their own blood; their colors unable to discern.

However, he could not seem to forget this bottomless pit filled to the brim with fear and guilt, the murky darkness always plunging him deeper and deeper into it, no matter how well he seemed to have been during the day.

At night, he was not allowed to forget. He was not allowed to overcome. The dreams would not allow it.

The stillness of the night was cut sharply with the sound of a muffled scream as Dimitri sat up with the shock of tearing himself away from the nightmare.

“Hah… hahh…” He breathed heavily, his good eye wide while the hollowed scar panged with a phantom pain he knew all too well. Digging his face into both of his hands, it took the King a few moments to regain his breath, his entire body lumping in defeat. “I am so… terribly sorry.” His voice sounded muffled.

Lying down beside him, Byleth stretched herself, well used to handling her husband’s nightmares by then. “Why are you sorry?” She patted the spot he had been previously, silently asking him to come back.

Defeated and ashamed, Dimitri let his weight fall down on the bed with a loud thud. “I had resigned myself to being haunted by these nightmares for the rest of my life, but you – you needn’t sacrifice your sleep over my own sleeplessness.”

“Nonsense,” Byleth snuck an arm under Dimitri’s head, wrapping it around his neck as she brought his face to her almost bare chest – she wore a V-cut camisole, see. “There’s nothing to forgive, love.”

Suddenly and quite literally wrapped in her warmth and soft skin, Dimitri closed his eye to enjoy the constant of his beloved’s heartbeat. Slowly did he reciprocate the hug, gently grasping her waist and back within his arms.

He took a moment to breathe, to take in his wife’s welcoming embrace and to simply allow his own anguish to melt under her touch before he opened his mouth to speak again, his lips brushing against her skin. “Resigned I say I am, yet I cannot help but think that I should not be plagued by these dreams any longer…!” He huffed, a frown deepening over his brow. “It’s been over a decade… I should be- yet I cannot hope to-”

“Shh,” Byleth combed Dimitri’s hair with one hand, graceful and softly, her breath disheveling a bit of his fringe. “You’ve only just started to heal, my love… The dreams happen with less frequency than they did ten years ago, do they not?” She asked, but didn’t truly wait for an answer, although he did nod. “Soon they’ll happen less and less until they’re a thing of the past.”

Dimitri’s frown melted as Byleth spoke, his shoulders sagging as his body deflated. “Mhm,” he nodded once again, bringing his wife even closer so he could feel her breasts on either side of his face.

“And I will be honored to be with you every step of the way – it’s something I’ve wanted to do since a long time ago.”

“Oh?” Since Dimitri’s mouth was too close to her skin, his voice barely came out at all, only the rumbling of his throat let it be heard by his wife.

Giggling, Byleth never stopped caressing her husband’s hair, carefully taking any knots she found along the way. “I wanted to be your strength to help you go through these sleepless nights ever since your academy days, you see.” She admitted, squeezing him more into her hold lest he looked up at her and saw her blushing face. “As I saw you wandering around the monastery at night, unable to sleep and plagued by the nightmares I couldn’t begin to understand… I only wanted to hug you and tell you it would be alright. Yet, all I could do was simply tell you to go back to sleep.”

Heat rose to Dimitri’s cheeks so fast it made even Byleth’s chest warm up. “Y-you- ever since then?” He stuttered with embarrassment, his heart now beating in a dissonant rhythm out of love instead of anguish as it were mere moments before.

Byleth dug her face into Dimitri’s hair, a giddy laughter bubbling out of her chest. “I couldn’t very well do this with that boy from back then, could I?”

“Haha!” Dimitri laughed into her chest, strengthening his grip on the hug, making her lose her breath. “I suppose not, however he who lives inside me could not be happier to hear this! Oh, if only you could have said that then… Perhaps it would have given me the strength I needed not to fall into despair.”

“Perhaps,” Byleth bobbed her head to the side. “Perhaps not. There is no way to tell, now that all this time has passed.”

“That is true.”

“Still, even if it had helped, it would’ve only made your focus change towards me, turning me into a crutch that would keep you from walking with your own feet… and then I- the fall from the canyon-”

Dimitri closed his eye once again, breathing her scent from so close. “That is also true as always, my beloved. I needed the words you told me during the war at the time you said them; had I received them too early or too late, I would still be consumed by darkness.”

Byleth murmured a “mhm,” before resuming her threading through his hair, gently stroking his skin with the other hand.

For a few moments, they stayed that way, enjoying one another’s warmth as they caressed their beloved in their own, loving way. Dimitri ran his hand up and down Byleth’s back as she breathed into his hair, the rhythm of their combined respiration making both of them sag in one another’s embrace.

Once the Queen took a smaller breath to speak, Dimitri snuggled into her chest to hear her voice rumbling through her ribs. “Do you want me to sing you a lullaby?”

Immediately did the King smirk as he took a nip of his beloved’s skin, right in the middle of her breasts. “Am I still that same boy, my beloved?”

“Heehee,” Byleth giggled, ticklish, as Dimitri dug his face into her skin, making her laugh even more. Squirming inside his rock-solid grip, Byleth struggled to pull his hair up, making him face her amidst his and hers laughter. “Oh, come here, you.” She huffed before digging into his lips, surprising him with a deep kiss.

Widening his eye but not about to deny a caress as passionate as that, Dimitri simply opened his mouth to allow his wife’s entry, their tongues well used but never tired of interlacing in their kiss. He turned his head to one side as she did the other, her small hands gripping at the tip of his jaw to lift his face to her even more, his own arms wrapped around her waist for support.

Byleth slowly turned the large kiss into countless smaller ones, their lips never wanting to part. “I could never do this to a boy,” she scoffed as he bit her lower lip, enjoying how softly it stretched as he pulled away.

“Duly noted,” he breathed into hers, the hot air intertwining between them. “Truly, duly noted,” he said in a hoarse voice, closing his eye to snuggle his nose into Byleth’s neck, making a trail of kisses from it to her cleavage – to the spot he had been previously.

Shivering with his careful touch, Byleth dug her nails into Dimitri’s back, holding her breath. “Perhaps a lullaby isn’t what you need right now?” She teased, hearing a hilarious, bubbly sound leave Dimitri’s mouth as he kissed her breast. “Haha! What was tha-”

Choking with embarrassment and mirth, Dimitri dug his face into her breast even more. “I thought I was being ‘real slick’ about it, too,” he mumbled, his voice sounding with a pout, though his mouth wearing a smirk.

Byleth raised one eyebrow. “Real slick? Was that something Sylvain told you to say again?” A moment of silence before Byleth felt Dimitri’s cheek burn in the middle of her breasts. “No way, I was right? Please don’t listen to what he says! He’s teasing you!”

“I get that now!” He pouted, his cheeks puffed in embarrassment as his face burned up. Lifting his gaze to meet hers, they both dissolved into laughter as they once again reached in for a peppy kiss, their bodies wide awake and ready to demonstrate their love for one another.

“You are so cute,” Byleth teased as they pulled away to breathe. “I love you even more during these times.”

“Good to know you love me when I embarrass myself – at least I will not need to suffer from it long, knowing you will be there, laughing at me whilst still loving me.” He grumbled as he shut her growing laughter with his kiss, placing her on her back over the mattress. “Of course I love you as well, despite this teasing, my beloved. For all eternity.”


End file.
